Andros

Andros, or Andro (Greek: Άνδρος) is the northernmost island of the Greek Cyclades archipelago, approximately 10 km (6 mi) south east of Euboea, and about 3 km (2 mi) north of Tinos.

Andros_town
Andros town

The island is famous for its Sariza spring at Apoikia where the water comes out of a lionhead. Palaeopolis, the ancient capital, was built into a steep hillside, and its harbor’s breakwater can still be seen underwater.

History

During the Final Neolithic (over 5,000 years ago), Andros had a fortified village on its west coast, which archaeologists have named Strofilas, after the plateau on which it was built. Strofilas was related to the “Attica-Kephala” culture, and predates the Cycladic culture of the Bronze Age. It was an important maritime center and one of the earliest examples of fortification in Greece. It is notable for rock carvings on its walls, which include animals such as jackals, goats, deer, fish and dolphins, as well as a depiction of a flotilla of ships. The island in ancient times contained an Ionian population, perhaps with an admixture of Thracian ancestry. Though originally dependent on Eretria, by the 7th century BC it had become sufficiently prosperous to send out several colonies, to Chalcidice (Acanthus, Stageira, Argilus, Sane).

Batsi,_Andros_island
Batsi village

The ruins of Palaeopolis, the ancient capital, are on the west coast; the town possessed a famous temple, dedicated to Dionysus. In 480 BC, it supplied ships to Xerxes and was subsequently harried by the Greek fleet. Though enrolled in the Delian League it remained disaffected towards Athens, and in 477 had to be coerced by the establishment of a cleruchy on the island; nevertheless, in 411 Andros proclaimed its freedom, and in 408 withstood an Athenian attack.

Hermes
Statue of Hermes Chthonios (Roman copy of 1st AD), Archaeological Museum of Andros

As a member of the second Delian League it was again controlled by a garrison and an archon. In the Hellenistic period, Andros was contended for as a frontier-post by the two naval powers of the Aegean Sea, Macedon and Ptolemaic Egypt. In 333, it received a Macedonian garrison from Antipater; in 308 it was freed by Ptolemy I of Egypt. In the Chremonidean War (266-263) it passed again to Macedon after a battle fought off its shores. In 200, it was captured by a combined Roman, Pergamene and Rhodian fleet, and remained a possession of the Kingdom of Pergamon until the dissolution of that kingdom in 133 BC. Before falling under Turkish rule, Andros was governed by the families Zeno and Sommaripa under Venetian protection from 1207 till 1566 (see: Duchy of the Archipelago). Subsequently, the island again came under direct Ottoman rule. After a few centuries, the Cyclades joined the rest of Greece in 1821.

TheophilosKairis
Theophilos Kairis was a Greek priest, philosopher and revolutionary. He was born in Andros, Cyclades, Ottoman Greece, as a son of a distinguished family.

On May 10, 1821, Theophilos Kairis, one of the leading intellectuals of the Greek Revolution, declared the War of Independence by raising the Greek flag at the picturesque cliffside church of St George: at this time, a famous heartfelt speech, or “ritoras” (ρήτορας), inspired shipowners and merchants to contribute funds to build a Greek Navy to combat the Ottomans.

Source Wikipedia.




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